) ■ 



HOW TO BUILD 



SCHOOL HOUSES; 



WITH SYSTEMS OF 



Heating, Lighting, 



AND 



VENTILATION. 



BY 



G. P. RANDALL, Architect, 

Chicago, III. 



CHICAGO : 
GEO. K. HAZLITT & CO., PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS, 
1882. 



Below I give the reader a list of some of the prominent build- 
ings for educational purposes designed by me, but this list only 
comprises a small part of what we call public school buildings that 
I have designed: 

Worthwestern University, ETanston, III. 

ETanston Collese for Iiadies, Evanston, III. 

liadies College of Madison University, Madison, "Wis. 

Mercer University, Macon, G&. 

Academy of the Sacred Heart, St. lioais. Mo. 

St. Mary's Academy, lieavenivortli, Kan. 

Jefferson liiberal Institute, Jefferson, "Wis. 

State STormal University, IVormal, 111. 

State Xormal School, l¥inona, Minn. 

State Kormal School, WhitcTrater, IVis. 

State Xormal School, Plattville, ^Vis. 

High School, Marshall, Mich. 

High School, Clinton, lU. 

High School, Atchinson, Kan. 

High School, Denver, Col. 

High School, Madison, l¥is. 

High School, Kankakee, 111. 

High School, VTinona, Minn. 

High School, Berlin, Tl^is. 

High School, L.itchfleld, 111. 

High School, Olney, 111. 

High School, Gralesburg, 111. 

High School, Red Wing, Minn. 

High School, Aurora, 111. 

High School, liaporte, Ind. 

High School, Plymouth, Ind. 

High School, Menomeuee, Mich. 

High School, Marinette, W^is. 

High School, Dodgeville, Wis. 

High School, Omaha, Xeb. 

High School, St. Paul, Minn. 

And several hundred Ward School buildings scattered over the 
country, South to the Gulf States, East as far as Pennsylvania and 
Vermont, West to Colorado, North to Minnesota, and within a radius 
of five hundred miles of this city a " fearful heap " of them. 



3221 

5 
y 1 



HOW TO BUILD 



SCHOOL HOUSES; 



WITH SYSTEMS OF 



Heating, Lighting, 



AND 



s VENTILATION. 



BY 



GfP. RANDALL, Architect, 

Chicago, III. 




CHICAGO : 
GEO. K. HAZLITT & CO., PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS, 

1882. 



-4— 

tendance with the addition of the necessary traveling expenses. 

The want of proper superintendence often results in notori- 
ous imposition on the part of the builder, and great injury to the 
building, and generally ends in law-suits. In the thirty years I 
have been in this business, there has never but once — a single 
instance — been a law-suit growing out of differences that I could 
not amicably settle between the contractor and my client; but I 
can recall scores of instances where disastrous suits have come 
to my clients for no other reason than because they intrusted the 
management of the work to mechanics, themselves, or other in- 
experienced persons. It don't pay. 

My commission will be on the entire cost of the huilding, 
mclndmg heating apparatus, extras, if any, etc., and will be made 
known on application. 

The plans will include all necessary scale and detail draw- 
ings, and if an important building, sometimes two or more copies 
have to be provided, and with these full and complete specifica- 
tions of all the work. The specifications will generally be 
printed. 

I invite any and all persons into whose hands this may fall, 
to give me early notice of buildings of every kind, to be erected, 
in their vicinity, and the address of persons interested; and if it 
results in benefit to myself, the party first giving me such infor- 
mation will be suitably rewarded. 

REFERENCES. 



My acquaintance throughout the northwest, within a radius 
of five or six hundred miles of this city, with the business men, 
and especially the mechanics and builders of the country, is ex- 
tensive, and for the reason that buildings of my designing may 
be found in almost every town and hamlet; but if not sufficiently 
known where such services may be wanted, I may safely refer to 
the business men generally of Chicago, where I have lived now over 
twenty-five 3'ears, or those outside of Chicago, with whom I have 
made business acquaintances during that period of time; and wha 
of all these, at home or abroad, can point to a single act of my life 



— 5— 

that will not square with the strictest principles of integrity? or 
in building construction, with the soundest principles of the con- 
structive art? I have built a great many 

COURT HOUSES, COLLEGES, 

universities, churches, railway and other heavy and important 
structures, and have never had to endure the mortification of see- 
ing them fall down, settle, or crack, for want of proper construc- 
tion; and while it may sound a little egotistic for me to say 
this, I challenge any man in the profession to show a cleaner 
record. 

BIOGRAPHICAL. 



I am now nearly sixty-one years old. I was born and raised 
a mechanic — my father having been a practical builder and mill- 
wright before me, which business I followed till twenty -five 
years old. After this I was engaged five years in the construc- 
tion of several of the important railways in my native (Green 
Mountain) state and elsewhere; and since thirty, have made the 
business of an architect my chief livelihood, with scientific 
studies interspersed as a kind of recreation,-, for I have in fact 
seldom had any other during all these long years. Some half a 
dozen years since I became so much engrossed in my scientific 
studies that I partially retired from active business as an archi- 
tect, having turned the chief management of my business over 
to a partner; but I soon found that a business, and that, to, one 
of the largest ever attained by any practitioner in this country, 
would soon go to naught when that individuality which had built 
it up, was eliminated from it. I therefore, some two or three 
years since, again buckled on my armor as of yore, and am now 
fast gaining my prestige of some twelve or fifteen years ago, 
when I employed twelve to fifteen of the best draughtsmen and 
assistants that I could find east or west. 

]Sr. B. — It is my purpose at no distant day to issue a 
pamphlet similar to this one, on the subject of Church Db- 
siaNiNG, another on Jail Constettotion, of which I have de- 



-4— 

tendance with the addition of the necessary traveling expenses. 

The want of proper superintendence often results in notori- 
ous imposition on the part of the builder, and great injury to the 
building, and generally ends in law-suits. In the thirty years I 
have been in this business, there has never but once — a single 
instance — been a law-suit growing out of differences that I could 
not amicably settle between the contractor and my client; but I 
can recall scores of instances where disastrous suits have come 
to my clients for no other reason than because they intrusted the 
management of the work to mechanics, themselves, or other in- 
experienced persons. It don't pay. 

My commission will be on the entire cost of the huilding-, 
mclnding heating apparatus, extras, if any, etc., and will be made 
known on application. 

The plans will include all necessary scale and detail draw- 
ings, and if an important building, sometimes two or more copies 
have to be provided, and with these full and complete specifica- 
tions of all the work. The specifications will generally be 
printed. 

I invite any and all persons into whose hands this may fall, 
to give me early notice of buildings of every kind, to be erected, 
in their vicinity, and the address of persons interested; and if it 
results in benefit to myself, the party first giving me such infor- 
mation will be suitably rewarded. 

REFERENCES. 



My acquaintance throughout the northwest, within a radius 
of five or six hundred miles of this city, with the business men, 
and especially the mechanics and builders of the country, is ex- 
tensive, and for the reason that buildings of my designing may 
be found in almostevery town and hamlet; but if not sufficiently 
known where such services may be wanted, I may safely refer to 
the business men generally of Chicago, where I have lived now over 
twenty-five j'ears, or those outside of Chicago, with whom I have 
made business acquaintances during that period of time; and wha 
of all these, at home or abroad, can point to a single act of my life 



— 5— 

that will not square with the strictest principles of integrity? or 
in building construction, with the soundest principles of the con- 
structive art? I have built a great many 

COURT HOUSES, COLLEGES, 

universities, churches, railway and other heavy and important 
structures, and have never had to endure the mortification of see- 
ing them fall down, settle, or crack, for want of proper construc- 
tion; and while it may sound a little egotistic for me to say 
this, I challenge any man in the profession to show a cleaner 
record. 

BIOGRAPHICAL. 



I am now nearly sixty-one years old. I was born and raised 
a mechanic — my liather having been a practical builder and mill- 
wright before me, which business I followed till twenty-five 
years old. After this I was engaged five years in the construc- 
tion of several of the important railways in my native (Green 
Mountain) state and elsewhere; and since thirty, have made the 
business of an architect my chief livelihood, with scientific 
studies interspersed as a kind of recreation,-, for I have in fact 
seldom had any other during all these long years. Some half a 
dozen years since I became so much engrossed in my scientific 
studies that I partially retired from active business as an archi- 
tect, having turned the chief management of my business over 
to a partner; but I soon found that a business, and that, to, one 
of the largest ever attained by any practitioner in this country, 
would soon go to naught when that individuality which had built 
it up, was eliminated from it. I therefore, some two or three 
years since, again buckled on my armor as of yore, and am now 
fast gaining my j)restige of some twelve or fifteen years ago, 
when I employed twelve to fifteen of the best draughtsmen and 
assistants that I could find east or west. 

N. B. — It is my purpose at no distant day to issue a 
pamphlet similar to this one, on the subject of Chukcii De- 
signing, another on Jail Construction, of which I have de- 



— 8- 



ticable, because in facing the teacher the pupils would face a 
glaring light. 

In making these designs I have aimed at the most rigid 




SECOND FLOOR.— Four Boom School House. 
Reference. — A, B, School Rooms. D, D, Wardrobes. 

economy in everything consistent with a good building. The 

rooms are a paralleogram, generally about 25 feet wide, which 




FIRST FLOOR. 
A Four Room School House at Prophetstown, III. (now building.) 



require 26 feet joist for the second floors, and to get longer joist 
is to increase the expense very considerably, owing to the greater 
expense of procuring such heavy timbers. 




PROPHETSTOWN SCHOOL HOUSE. 



Then I make the room from 33 to 36 or 38 feet long, accord- 
ing to circumstances and the number of pupils to be seated in 
each. 

A room 25 feet wide will give space for six rows of single 
desks, and 33 to 35 long will provide for ten tiers of seats the 
other way. 

N. B. Persons ordering plans should always give the num- 



—10— 

ber of sittings in each room, and leave the architect to determine 
its size. Suggestions as to size, however, are always in order. 

I would never, except in a crowded city, advise that a house 
be built more than two stories high above the basement or cellar, 
which should have good concrete floors, so that they may be kept 
clean and tidy, and besides being fuel and furnace rooms, they 
can be used by the children for exercise in foul weather, or in 
some eases may be fitted up for lunch rooms. 

In designing such a building, with four school rooms on a 
floor, and with special reference to the best arrangement for light, 
the outline of the building necessarily becomes what we call ir- 
regular. With architects this is not generally considered a fault, 
but with persons of uncultivated tastes in architecture, it is not 
an uncommon occurrence that tliey object to this, and want a reg- 
ular parallelogram in plan, with a front door in the center, and 
the building equally balanced on each side. This may sometimes 
be in good taste, but it depends on the style of finish and details 
, of the work. They can generally be made either way in the 
front, if the interior arrangements are not arbitrary, but they 
generally will be if the subject of light has the attention it de- 
serves. 

School directors should always make suggestions freely as to 
what they think they want, and if I cannot make such combina- 
tions as they suggest, I will do the best I can towards it. 

In making new designs for such buildings, the drawings will 
be penciled and then traced on thin paper and submitted to the 
inspection and approval of the Board, and in no case do I make 
up such drawings until the design has the approval of the Board 
or individual for whom I make it. 

WARDROBES. 



In the arrangement of school houses there are several ways of 
constructing these important adjuncts. "When I commenced to de- 
sign school buildings for this city (Chicago) 25 years ago, I 
found that in those previously built the wardrobes were rooms 
very nearly square, and the sexes occupied them together. I 
made these in the new buildings long and narrow, this form 



—11— 

giving the greatest amount of wall surface on which to hang 
clothing. About 15 or 16 years ago, in building the State Nor- 
mal school at Winona, Minn., and afterwards the City High 
school there, in place of these long narrow rooms, I made a suc- 
cession of boxes or wardrobes, each about 2x2 feet square, with 
doors in front and hooks on the other three sides. A half dozen 
scholars more or less could use each of these. They were usually 
built at the end of the school room opposite the teacher's dais, 
but more lately I have located them on each side of the teacher's 
dais or platform. These small wardrobes have the advantage of 
occupying about one half less floor space than those in the form 




FIRST FLOOR PJ^Al^.— High School Building, Dodgeville, Wis. 
Reference.— A, A, School Rooms ; C, Stairway Hall. 

of a parallelogram, and hence the building would be somewhat 
reduced in size and cost. The cut representing the floors of the 
Dodgeville, Wis., school house, has this arrangement of ward- 
robes, the boys using those on one side and the girls on the 
other. This arrangement has the advantage of keeping the pu- 



—12— 



pils, as they come and go, always under the eye of tlie teachers, 
and without leaving their dais. 

But I have more recently made what I consider an improve- 
ment on this small wardrobe arrangement. Placing the flue 
stack, as at Dodgeville, back of the teacher's platform, I locate 
the boys' and girls' wardrobes on each side, as shown in the plans 
for a house lately designed for Maywood, one of the suburban 




SECOND FLOOR PLAN. 

References. — B, large School Room ; E, Recitation Room ; D, Apparatus 
and Library; A, A, ordinary School Rooms; H, Principal's office; F, 
G, Cloak Rooms; C, Hall. 

towns of this city. These rooms are separated from the main 
room by a thin plank partition about seven or seven and one- 
half leet high, with door, and open above, so that the rooms are 
finely lighted from the windows that light the main room. 

In the splayed surfaces or sides of these rooms, next the 
teacher's dais, there is a small window, through which the 
teacher from her position, standing at her desk, can observe all 
the movements of the scholars while inside the rooms. One of 



—13- 



these rooms is for each of tlie sexes. This arrangement is un- 
doubtedly the best and most economical, while it affords what 
I think will be the most satisfactory solution of the problem, 
how best to arrange the wardrobes in a school-house. 




HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING, DODGEVILLE, WIS. 



—14— 

Blackboards. 



1 arrange blackboards on all sides of the room. That on the 
side back of the teacher is tlie width of the flue stack, or about 
seven feet, and on the other three sides they occupy all the wall 
space, and in height from the crayon shelf under, to the top of 
the door, or about five and a half feet wide. 

Ventilating School Building's. 



The subject of heating and ventilating school buildings is 
one of great importance; and while most school boards are ready to 
admit its necessity, they do not know how to go about it, nor to 
whom they should apply for information on this subject. 

There is a general supposition that if they are going to build 
they must of necessity have an architect, and they su^^pose that 
all architects are familiar with the subject of ventilation, and 
risrht here is their first and fatal mistake. 

But the first thing that a school director should learn, is to 
distinguish between those who are real experts in this business, 
and those who are simply pretenders; between those whose ideas, 
are based on sound scientific principles, and mere copyists. 

The unskillful ventilating engineer is likely to make a smoke 
flue too large or too small, or so unshapely as to defy all princi- 
ples of pneumatics and their practical application, and is sur- 
prised when he finds that his flue smokes at the wrong end, 
and naturally concludes that he has it wrong end up, though he 
cannot tell why it works thus. 

A man who can arrange all the parts of a system of ventila- 
tion so there shall be no want of harmony between the science or 
theory and its practical application, has attained to a, high place 
in his profession, and the school director who, after having 
listened to the unscientific declaimer, can determine whether the 
man is, in reality, an expert in the business, instead of an ignorant 
pretender, has at least one fitting qualification for the position to 
which a confiding constituency have called him. 



—15— 

Several Systems of Yentilation. 



There are several systems of ventilation applicable to school 
houses, one of which is known as the upward system, or upward 
exhaust in contradistinction to the downward exhaust, or as it is 
more commonly called, the 

EUTTAlSr [SYSTEM. , 

In the construction of school buildings, 1 have generally adhered 
to the Ruttan system for ventilation. 

This Ruttan system, so called, was introduced into this part 
of the country some twenty years ago, by the patentee, the Hon. 
Henry Kuttan, of Coburg, Canada West; but has since under- 
gone great modifications and improvements, by and through the 
agency of the successors to his business, and the writer; and I 
will stake my reputation as a ventilating engineer and architect, 
that in respect to ventilation the designs I am now making have 
no peers in this country. 

This Euttan principle is to take the air out of the room at 
the floor; and sometimes, and as was generally his practice, down 
to the cellar or basement, thence to an exhaust shaft; and on 
this account it is sometimes spoken of or referred to as the 

DOWJSTWARD EXHAUST 

principle. There is, however, another method which is perhaps 
more in accord with science, of which the writer claims to have 
made the first application, in this city, at least, in the building 
known as the Union Park Congregational church ; and this, in 
contradistinction to the first or Ruttan method, I have called the 

UPWARD EXHAUST 

system. But I will say here, that in the application of the two 
systems to school houses, my preference is for the downward 
exhaust, or Ruttan system, and chiefly on account of certain 
advantages in the application of the two. I shall therefore re- 
serve further explanation of the upward system until I publish 
a pamphlet on the construction, heating, and ventilation of 
churches, which I hope to do at no distant day. 



—16— 



Now if the reader will agree with me, as most intelligent 
people do, that the Rattan system \?> par excellence the correct 
system for heating and ventilating a school room, I will explain 
somewhat more in detail the general: principles on which it is 
based. 

I have already said that the air is to be exhausted out of 
the room at the floor. In the upward exhaust system as applied 
by myself in the U. P. Church, the air is taken out at the ceiling. 




FIRST FLOOR VljK^.—Maywood, Sehool House, {not yet huilt.) 
Reference. — A, B, C, D, School Rooms; E, E, E, Cloak Rooms. 

Euttan took it out through the base of the room, and this method 
has not yet been improved upon. T am aware that some architects 
for whose opinions I have great respect, set registers in the floor 
and at difierent points in the room, I presume for the purpose of 
producing a change of air in these sections, but this I deem a 
serious error, for the reason, that around such registers in the 



—17— 



floor there must of necessity be a movement of air towards the 
register, and no child can sit with his or her feet within the in- 
fluence of these currents without having cold feet. It does not 
matter what may be the temperature of the air in the room, mov- 
ing currents will always absorb and carry off the heat from the 
body and produce cold, which is the absence of heat. In my 
own practice I have Jalways preferred Mr. Ruttan's views as to 
the best method of getting the air out of the room. 

There is another and all important reason for its passage 
through the base, and it is this: There are generally in every 




SECOND FLOOR PLAN. J 

Reference. — A, B, C, D, School Rooms ; F, Principal's oflace. 

school room two or more outside walls, or walls that are exposed 
to the outside cold, and these walls will be penetrated with frost, 
and though they may, as they always should, be furred inside 
and the laths nailed to the furrings, yet the effect of walls so sit- 
uated is to make a much colder surface inside the room than will 
be found on the surface of inside walls. 



-18— 



Again, the windows for lighting these rooms must necessa- 
rily be located in these outside walls, and this, too, will exert a 
powerful influence in absorbing the heat that comes in contact 
with the glass, if, as is generally the case, the windows are built 
single, in which case the air cooled by contact with the glass, 
and that cooled by contact with the comparatively cold wall 
surface, will be condensed, and its specific gravity being increased 
thereby, it will immediately fall to the floor. Now, if the outlet 
for impure and cold air be through a perforated base, it will at 
once pass out of the room, but if it pass out through exit regis- 
ters scattered around the floor, as soon as it strikes the floor it 
will at once glide along its surface, making a zone of cold air on 
the floor till it finds these registers. 







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HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING, MAYWOOD, ILL. 



—19— 

It should require no further argument to enable the reader 
to decide which of the two methods is the preferable one. In my 
practice in jears past, I have generally perforated the base the 
entire length of the two sides of the room adjacent to the outside 
walls, but under some circumstances it may do to place this per- 
forated or exit base only under the windows. It was an idea 
with Mr. Kuttan that the air in such a room, or indeed in any 
well ventilated room, should move in and out of the room in 
Buch imperceptible currents as not to be felt by the occupants of 
the room. ISfothing could be more correct in principle or prac- 
tice. The reverse of this will produce colds as surely as the vic- 
tim gets within their influence. How common an occurence it 
is for people sitting near a window to begin to sneeze, and fre- 
quently they imagine that the cold currents they feel are wind 
.currents, entering around the sash, and begin to calculate the 
utility of having window strips, etc., when in fact it is the con- 
densation or cooling of the air in the room by contact with the cold 
glass by which a downward current is produced as already stated. 

It matters but little whereabouts in the room the warm 
fresh air is introduced, whether at the floor, through the ceiling, 
or through the wall between floor and ceiling, and whether atone 
or a dozen places, as regards the heating and ventilating of the 
room, but there may be other reasons, and important ones, that 
should govern the architect in his choice of position for the inlet 
registers. On account of security against fire, I generally set the 
register in the wall above the blackboards, or eight or nine feet 
above the floor. 

Now, we will suppose we have a large volume of moderately 
heated air coming into the room from the furnace. As soon as 
it is in the room it goes at once to the ceiling, and spreads out 
over the entire surface in a level zone, and as this process goes 
on there must at once commence an exit of cold or foul air (the 
coldest in the room) [at and through the perforated base, and 
very soon, or in the space of five to ten minutes, this zone of 
warm air will reach entirely to the floor, and will have driven the 
cold air out of the room^ for it should not be supposed that we 
can get the warm fresh air into the room unless we provide a 



—20— 

proper exit for the cold and foul air already in it. And here let 
me say that one and not the least of the advantages of exhaust- 
ing the air at the bottom of the room is that as we fill the room 
with warm pure air from the top down, the walls and ceiling, if 
cold at the start, are soon after in contact with warm air, and in 
a few minutes such walls will become sensibly warm, and this at 
once stops all down cold currents that would otherwise exist near 
the wall surface. 

This is the chief advantage that the downward has over the 
upward exhaust systems. In some buildings the two systems 
work admirably together in the same room, though to some this 
assertion may seem a little paradoxical. 

Observe, now, the advantage of having our perforated base 
chiefly on the cold side or sides of the room. As this is the side 
of exit for the cold air, the exhaust naturally draws the same 
zone of air above, to these sides of the room, so that what would 
otherwise be the coldest and most uncomfortable place in these 
rooms — the tier of seats next the outside walls — are in fact the 
warmest and best ventilated parts of the room. 

Having provided a way for the foul air to escape out of the 
room let us follow it a little farther. Mr. Ruttan's method was 
to gather the foul air to some convenient point under the floor 
and take it down to the cellar or basement and then gather it, 
through the agency of horizontal ducts in or under the cellar, to 
a large ventilating shaft, and through this it was exhausted to the 
open air above the roof To this exhausting air-shaft the writer 
added a smoke pipe in the center to which, and through which the 
smoke was gathered and passed from the furnaces to the open air. 

This pipe radiating heat in the ventilating shaft, was so 
great an addition to the motive power of ventilation, that it at 
once came into general use, and I apprehend there are but* few 
people who do not suppose or think that this radiating pipe is a 
part of the Rnttau system. The credit of the invention belongs 
as I think to a Connecticut architect, Mr. Stone, of New Haven, 
if 1 have been correctly informed. The writer found it in a 
Philadelphia hospital some twenty-five years ago, and realizing 
its great value, introduced it to and with the Ruttan system, 
as he thinks, with excellent results. 



—21— 

But in the course of time and after long study I have found 
what in my judgment is a better arrangement, one less liable to 
get out of repair or to be affected by wind currents, and withal 
a simpler and better method. 

By reference to one of the floor plans in the accompanying 
engravings it will be seen that there are several flues directly 
behind the teacher's dais or platform. I make a gathering or 
foul air chamber under this platform and between it and the top 
of the furnace, into which all the foul air that passes out of the 
room through the perforated base, finds its way by passing be- 
tween the joists and furrings on top of them, and from this foul 
air chamber the air passes into one of the flues in this adjacent 
stack up to the open air and out of the building. I set the fur- 
nace against this stack of flues and under the platform, and pass 
the heat directly from the furnace into the flues without inter- 
vening metallic pipes. This flue is cut off at the top of the 
large register behind the teacher's dais, and through this register 
the air passes from the flue into the room. 

In this way there can be no possible danger as there is no 
wood-work in contact witli or even near the register, and conse- 
quently no danger from flre originating around these furnaces 
need be apprehended. It will be seen to, that each set of two 
rooms has a furnace and a full complement of warm air, ventil- 
ating and smoke flues independent of all others and this will pre- 
<ilude any of the difficulties of back currents, which are so common 
a source of trouble. In heating and ventilating a school-house of 
two stories in height, I always prefer to use one furnace for each pair 
of rooms, the rooms being one above the other. With such an 
arrangement in regard to the construction of the furnace flues 
as will form a part of every specification I make, they will be 
so built that the teachers will be able to control the heat and 
ventilation perfectly, and what is of the greatest importance, 
they cannot gel them wrong. 

In this improved way of doing it the builders will understand 
how to construct every part, and not, as heretofore,''often, very 
often, spoil the whole arrangement of the ventilation through 
carelessness and ignorance. 



—22— 

But I must again caution school directors against falling into 
the too common error of supposing that with the description 
given here, anybody can design such work, because anybody 
cannot do it. There is but rarely an architect who can do it, 
and none except they have made it a special study. Of the 
hundred architects in this city, many of whom stand high, very 
high, in their profession, I only know of one or two, beside my- 
self, who have a sufficient knowledge of the practical application 
of it, to make a success of such a simple building as a school- 
house, much less one with more complicated parts. On the 
other [hand there are those not only in this city but in some of 
the prominent cities within a radius of five hundred miles of 
here, who are making a specialty of doing such work, and are 
doing an immense deal of it, who know nothing at all about the 
Kuttan or any other system of ventilation, beyond that of put- 
ting a flue or two in the wall, with exit registers, but without 
knowing whether the air will go in or out of them. 

They are practicing an egregious imposition upon those who 
are giving them their confidence. Until school directors can 
distinguish between those who do and those who do not under- 
stand these things, their children must continue to breathe an 
atmosphere that will bring to them sickness, disease and death. 

But there is one class of persons who are vitally interested in 
having the school buildings ventilated, and who, owing in part to 
their superior education, and in part to the fact of their having to 
pass so much of their time in school rooms, may be relied upon for 
co-operation in the good work of educating school directors to the 
necessity of having well ventiated school buildings, I allude to the 

PRINCIPALS OF THE SCHOOLS 

and their assistants. 

I think I have foreshadowed enough of the details to enable 
any well-informed person to understand the py^inciples of venti- 
lation if they will but look into it. I have purposely omitted to 
explain the all-important parts that must have special attention 
in the construction, as being more properly a part of the specifi- 
cation and details. These, if I make them, will have the most 
careful attention. 



—23— 

Heating. 

There is one part of this subject to which I desire to call the 
special attention of School Boards, School Superintendents, Prin- 
cipals and all, and that is that when a house is ever so well pro- 
vided with a system of ventilation, it will never ventilate until 
it has a proper heating apparatus. Without this it is like a 
locomotive without a fire, it has no motive or moving power, and 
however correct in principle and in all its details it may be, it is 
of little worth until it has the fire and water put to it. 

The same apparatus that will ventilate one of my school 
houses with furnace heat, will also do it with heat generated 
through the agency of steam pipes. Instead of setting a furnace 
inside the warm air chamber, place a sufficient coil of steam pipes 
there, and this is all there is of it. But generally the steam 
heating is much the more expensive method of the two, and re- 
quires the most careful attention on the part of the janitor. If 
this individual should neglect to shut off the cold air, or turn 
the water out of his drip pipes, he will be sure to find his appa- 
ratus frozen and burst if the temperature is below the freezing 
point. 

On the other hand, using a furnace, he may leave the fire 
to burn down and go out, and if it stands 24 hours or six months 
it is ready to fire up whenever needed. 

I have allotted considerable space to the description and 
advantage? -of furnace heating, and this chiefly because nine- 
tenths of such buildings should be thus heated, but there are 
some of the more complicated kind that cannot be so heated and 
for the same reason that a business block cannot be heated by hot 
air from furnaces. In any school building in this northern cli- 
mate there is an advantage in using steam in setting small coils 
under each window whereby to counteract the down currents of 
cold air, made cold by contact with the cold glass, as elsewhere 
referred to. By placing these coils under each window we pro- 
vide direct radiation that may be used to keep up the heat in a 
severe cold day, but not to lessen the source of heat from which 
and by which the room is ventilated. Inside or double windows 
will do this nearly as well. 



—24— 

The Kind of Furnace to be Used. 



But, the point must not be overlooked that a school house 
cannot be ventilated only at the expense of heat. It is an easy 
matter to put up a furnace with small capacity, small pipe con- 
nection, etc., and get enough heat through it to warm the school 
room, but when the room is to be ventilated and the air changed 
every few minutes, it becomes a different thing altogether. Suf- 
ficient caloric may be sent into a room to heat it, through a small 
pipe or duct, but if it is essential to ventilate the room at the 
same time and keep it in a condition fit for respiration with 50 
or 60 children in the room, it will, in such case, be essential that 
the volume of air be increased to three or four times what it was 
when heating only was required. 

It is a common occurrence to find houses amply provided for 
ventilation with everything but heating power, and this was de- 
ficient only because the directors did not understand this impor- 
tant principle. They will fall into the hands of some unscrupul- 
ous, or to be charitable I suppose I should say ignorant furnace 
vender, who was willing to undertake to heat the building for a 
price to be agreed upon, but knowing that the men he was deal- 
ing with were too little acquainted with such work to know 
whether the rooms were ventilated or not, he always presumes 
that if he gets heat enough that his work will be accepted, and 
he gets his pay before it will be found out that there is no ven- 
tilation. 

ISTow, the way to avoid all this difficulty is to employ an 
architect who is thoroughly familiar with the subject of ventila- 
tion in all its parts, in every shape in which it can come up, and 
he should be able to give such advice as will enable you to steer 
clear of all these difficulties. 

In giving the Ruttan furnace the preferance over all others 
I do so at the risk of incurring the displeasure of other dealers, 
but when I come to the class of buildings to which their furnaces 
are specially adapted, I shall not and do not hesitate to do them 
ample justice. But if I attempt to ventilate a school house with 
any other than this Ruttan furnace, it is generally a failure. 



—25— 

Then why should I do an act that would soon bring a most 
valuable class of my clients to presume that as regards the ven- 
tilation of school houses, I have more wind than substance. As 
it is, what reputation I have made for myself as a ventilating ar- 
chitect, I have made, as everybody knows who knows me at all, 
by recommending no man's wares of whatever kind or quality, 
for any other consideration than the interest of my clients, and 
without fear or favor of anybody. Their interests are always 
identical with my own. 

I do not presume that the highest state of perfection has 
been reached in this Ruttan furnace, and I shall be ready to in- 
vestigate whenever a better one is presented. If my clients pre- 
fer to heat with steam, I shall be ready to second their efforts in 
adapting it to the necessities of the case in each particular in- 
stance, as it shall come up, but I must be allowed to warn school 
boards that neither friendship nor favoritism should be allowed 
to influence their action in the determination of such important 
matters. On the other hand, if they would build a good school 
house that, in the matter of heating aud ventilation, and superi- 
ority of arrangements otherwise, shall be a success without a 
possibility of failure, they ought to give their orders to the writer 
to assure this. 

The interior finishing, if left to my own judgment, I make 
neat and plain, but provide everything essential to a good school 
building. Externally I can make them plain or ornate, as direc- 
ted, and it should be understood that the designs herewith shown 
are selected from several hundred, and all differino- from each 
other, and that there is no end to to the variety that can be made 
for such buildings. 



—26— 

How Best Obtained. 



The best method for getting plans is to write as to the number 
of school-rooms wanted, and about how many scholars is to be 
seated in a room, and indicate the material of which the build- 
ing is to be built. Give the position of the lot, whether it be 
high or low, as regards its surroundings. Whether it has one or 
more sti'eets or fronts, the points of compass and size of lot. 
Give the practicability and direction of drainage, and the nature 
of soil. 

This data will enable me to determine whether I have any plans 
on hand that are similar to what is wanted, which I may possibly 
send for inspection of the board, if I am satisfied they will not be 
improperly used, or to my disadvantage. 

But it is the most valuable outlay, and one that will yield the 
best dividends, for the board to pay my traveling expenses, and 
I will give my time, and go and confer with them and settle 
all preliminaries before beginning the work. It is emphatically 
false economy to begin otherwise, still if the board do not so view 
it, send me the data already indicated and I will make the de- 
signs without such conference. 



—27— 

Cost of Such Buildings. 



At the present time, (Dec. 1881,) the cost of building a good 
substantial brick school-house is about $2,500 per school-room. 
This may vary a little as the price of material may vary in dif- 
ferent places, but it is a safe estimate, and a board may safely set 
down as a fraud the architect who claims that he can make de 
signs from which such a house can be built for much less money. 

The design herewith shown for a house at Maywood is the 
cheapest design that can be made for an 8-room house, and on 
this occasion will probably be built for a little less than $2,500 
per room — perhaps $2,300 or $2,400. All these prices named 
cover the cost of heating which will be about $250 to $300 per 
room. They cover the cost not only of heating and ventilation, 
but also of bell, lightning-rods, and all such necessary accessories 
to such a building. Don't forget that when I talk or write about 
the cost of such buildings these things are always included. 



—28— 

Illustrations. 



The particular buildings which form the illustrations for 
this pamphlet, were selected for the purpose of presenting some 
of the advanced ideas in school house designing, and for the pur- 
pose of showing what I consider the best kind of arrangements 
for these buildings respectively. 

But the fact must not be lost sight of that in these illustra- 
tions I have presented but three designs out of the immense 
number I have made in the past years, and each differing from 
the others, so that if any board of directors do not like these^ 
they can be furnished with such designs as they will like, at 
short notice. 

The arrangement of a school house does not depend upon 
the architect's ideal house, but he must consider the situation, 
the points of compass of the building site, the direction of it& 
approaches and from which it will be most prominently seen. 
All these are important data, and on these must depend, in a 
great measure, the internal and external design of the house. I 
have very seldom, if ever, designed two alike. 

To illustrate these three designs, commencing with the 
Prophetstown school house, on page 8, I have given the first and 
second floor plans, and a perspective view of the exterior. 

The second design here given is shown by the floor plans, 
page 11 and 12, and the perspective, page 13, of the exterior of the 
high school building now being built at Dodgeville, Iowa Co., 
Wis. I present these floor plans for the special purpose of call- 
ing attention to the arrangement of the wardrobes on each side 
the teacher's dais, or platform, elsewhere referred to, and also to 
show an excellent method of arranging a large room on the sec- 
ond floor for the principal afid an assistant teacher, there being 
a fine recitation room, and also a library and apparatus room, 
with dressing rooms for boys and girls, all attached to the main 
room. The principal's retiring room and office is also near at hand 

The plates representing the last four-room house, two floor 
plans and a perspective, are from the designs recently made for a. 



—29— 

house at May wood, Illinois, and this is arranged for the dressing 
rooms on each side of the teacher's dais, like those in the 
Prophetstown design first noticed. 

I am now preparing what I think will be a very fine design 
for a six-room house, by placing a single room on each story in 
rear of the Prophetstown or four-room house, with the front 
substantially as for the four- room house. School Boards wanting 
to see such a design can send to me for it. 

It will be observed that in all of these designs, the entrances 
at front and rear and side door, if they have any, have their steps 
mainly under the building. This is economy in construction, 
because the most of the steps can be built of wood instead of 
stone; besides it places them under shelter, out of the sleet and 
ice, and in this way saves a great many broken heads. 

The outside doors are recessed well back under shelter, and 
all swing out and into recesses in the walls or jambs, but not out 
side the face of the walls. 

At the rear there are generally two doors, so*as to divide and 
separate the sexes when they go into their respective back yards, 
or to the privies, and these yards and privies should be separated 
by a high board fence or wall. 

If I had the cuts prepared, I should be glad to give, in this 
pamphlet, illustrations of several other school buildings I have 
lately designed, and which are far in advance of these architec- 
turally, as well as expensively; as for instance a high school build- 
ing at Marinette, Wisconsin, and another at St. Paul, Minn., the 
latter to cost from |50,000 to $60,000, and one of the best I have 
ever designed, though not by any means the most expensive. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



020 313 285 2 






In the line of Church designing I have hardly done less than in 
Educational buildings. 

The great fire destroyed my record of churches, as well as of 
school buildings built previous to ten years ago, and I can only re- 
call some of the more prominent of them. Of these the Union 
Park Congregational Church, of this city, is one of all others that 
should give me the greatest share of credit, it being the first of the 
kind known as the " amphitheatre Style " in its full development. 
Others have been built with a few of the front seats curving around 
the pulpit in a sort of segment, and still others with the floor in- 
clined in a plane, but it was left for me to cover the entire floor with 
pews sweeping around the pulpit in a curve of more than a semi- 
circle, with aisles radiating from the pulpit, and last, but not least, a 
bowled floor. Others have claimed, and still claim, to be the origin- 
ators of this fine conception in church architecture, and there is a 
man in New York who is heralding this falsehood by circulars sent 
broadcast all over the country. He claims that the Tabernacle, built 
in 1870, was the first church built in this style, but unfortunately for 
his unfounded claim to other people's "thunder," a stone tablet built 
into the walls of the Union Park Church, says that it was erected 
in 1869. 

The church was deemed so great a success in its conception, 
that Mr. Bowen, of the N. Y. Independent, came here and had draw- 
ings made of the exterior and interior, showing the new feature in 
church designing, had it engraved, and published, and scattered over 
Christendom, wherever the Independent was read, 125,000 copies of 
this improved church architecture. Since then Union Park Church 
has been the model that all have tried to equal. 

The Baptist Church, Grand Rapids, Mich., the Congregational 
Church at Mansfield, O., and Madison Wis., and the Universalist 
Church, Minneapolis, Minn., are among the best churches in the coun- 
try, and all modeled substantially after Union Park Church of this 
city. The large Westminster Church, now building at Minneapolis. 
Minn., is from a design by Randall & Miller, made some three years 
since, while Mr, Miller and myself were associated in business. 

Previous to the great fire, as well as since, I have designed an 
immense number of churches, of all grades and sizes, that will com- 
pare favorably with a like numb er in any part of the country. 

1 can make designs for small cheap houses on the amphitheatre 
plan, as well as large ones. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



020 313 285 2 




UNION PARK CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. 



